Page 24 of The Chance

No matter what he had to do.

21

Aubrey held herself together.Gunn and Guthrie somehow just took charge, with Guthrie declaring he was going to drive her car back to the ranch, and Ayla—already in Gunn’s warmed truck—was going to ride with Gunn. But Aubrey had to stay a while longer.

She couldn’t just leave. Even if she wanted to. The minutes just continued to tick, long after Gunn had taken Ayla away.

She wanted to be there with her sister, to make sure Ayla was going to be okay. But if she couldn’t—Chantal had gone home with Genny’s brother Gene. Greer and Hala were there, too. They would take care of her sister if Aubrey couldn’t.

Because they cared about her. Aubrey kept reminding herself of that. They had people in their lives who cared about them now. They did. They weren’t alone.

But all of this…was too much.

And waiting, answering so many questions. With the sheriff, and with the blond cop that Guthrie seemed to know so well, and Chantal’s oldest brother, also a cop with the same unit out of the larger TSP branch in Finley Creek. But the questions just didn’t stop.

Aubrey just stood there, looking at what that monster had done to her house. There was spray paint down her living room wall.

No one thought this was random. Not after what had happened to her car.

But who would hate her enough to do this… Aubrey didn’t have a clue.

She kept shaking, even though Guthrie had produced a blanket from somewhere and wrapped it around her shoulders. George—George had had a blanket in his car; that was where it had come from. It had Wonkus McBubbles printed on it everywhere and smelled like fruit punch and had a tiny bit of something sticky and purple on the corner. She wasn’t even aware tears were on her cheeks until Guthrie was there. One hand came up—she almost flinched away. Then he wiped a tear gently.

It was almost her undoing.

“Enough,” he said, and turned to the three TSP. “She’s hit her limit. She’s already had a pretty rough night. I’m taking her back to the ranch, to her sister. Any other questions—you all know where to find us.”

Just like that, he almost herded her back to her car. And they were on the way to the Hiller Ranch.

Just like that.

Aubrey didn’t say a word on the drive. All he said was that things would be okay. That he was going to make sure of it. For her.

Aubrey wanted to believe him more than anything else in the world. But that part of her, the part that had hope—sometimes she thought that part of her had died a long time ago.

If it had even existed in the first place.

Her sister was waiting for her, Hillers surrounding Ayla everywhere. And Chantal was there, fussing over Aubrey’s sister.Aubrey took one look at their friends and started crying. Like she hadn’t cried in a long, long time.

She just couldn’t stop.

22

“What was that idiot doing?”

Justin turned at the question. He knew who it was. “I think he just got in over his head with that girl. And did something stupid.”

Doug had been fucking stupid. There was no other real way to put it. That Hiller girl wasn’t worth throwing away his damned life. Doug had screwed up everything for himself—he’d lose his license for what happened, and he was probably going to go to prison for several years. If he didn’t, there would be a mental health facility involved, most likely.

He’d stabbed that nurse. Just stabbed her. Right there for everyone to see.

Why would he throw everything away on a nurse like that? Justin had known Doug was hung up on that Hiller nurse, but…he hadn’t thought his friend had been that out of it. Maybe he should have seen, done something to help Doug somehow. Instead of being caught up in his own problems.

“The last thing we need are the cops poking around this place because good old Dougie couldn’t just fuck the woman he wanted and forget about her,” Dale said. The man was probablythe closest thing to a sociopath Justin had ever met. Dale Howard cared about no one. Just himself. And just the money he was amassing on the side.

Justin regretted ever knowing him. Dale hadn’t always been this way, though. He hadn’t.

Dale was going to face consequences someday.

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